Kirby of the Stars: The After Story Smash Arc
by captainwii
Summary: An AU fanfic inspired by LeerJustice's Kirby of the Stars: The After Story. Two weeks after mysteriously vanishing, Kirby suddenly reappears and tells his friends in Dreamland his story of his time being in the clutches of Master Hand along with several of the mightiest heroes in the multiverse, and how Kirby had to fight both with and against these heroes to help free them all.
1. Chapter 1

Smash 1

(Shadow of the Colossus – Silence)

It's been two weeks now, and Kirby was still missing.

For two weeks, the kingdom of Dreamland was plagued with confusion and worry.

For two weeks Fumu found herself fearing the worst.

To Fumu, none of it made any sense, Kirby never showed any recent signs he was unhappy enough to want to leave, he never said anything about wanting to go somewhere, he never even left a note. It was almost like he vanished without a trace.

Fumu was standing on the castle walls, looking out into the landscape that is the kingdom of Dreamland, she was beside herself with worry.

 _Kirby…_ Fumu thought, _Where did you go?_

Fumu heard footsteps, she turned to see Gooey, Bun, and Rick.

"Sorry, sis," Bun said, "We've got literally everyone searching up and down Pop Star, and none of us has so much found a clue to where Kirby is."

"Meta Knight even contacted Ribbon on Ripple Star," Rick said, "She said Kirby isn't here either."

Gooey seemed particularly nervous "Sweet mercy! This is nerve wracking! What if the worst happened? What if he's been kidnapped by giant insects and Sold to a zoo? Or a circus? Or worst; a Zoo-Circus?-!"

"Zoo-Circus?" Rick asked.

"Come on, guys, we gotta focus!" Fumu said sternly, "there has to be somewhere we haven't looked."

"Sis, we've got our friends searching the entire planet." Bun said, "Heck, Sir Arthur's even got people searching the entire Gamble Galaxy, if there's anywhere we haven't looked, I'd love to know what it is."

"Well, it's not like he's gonna just pop up out of thin air," Fumu said.

Suddenly, Fumu noticed a flash of light coming from behind her, she turned around.

Fumu gasped at who she saw…

(Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Reunion)

She saw Kirby, and he looked exhausted and bruised, and he even looked as though he hadn't slept in days.

"KIRBY!" Fumu quickly ran up to pink child and hugged him tightly, "Are you alright? We've had people searching the entire galaxy for you."

"I'm fine, poyo, haha," Kirby gave a soft, tired chuckle but then groaned, "I'm just still a little sore…everywhere."

Bun, Gooey, and Rick all approached Kirby.

"Kirby, what happened to you?" Bun asked, "You look like you just walked out of a warzone."

"It's a little….. complicated, poyo, but don't worry, I'll explain everything" Kirby answered, as Fumu released Kirby from her hug, he sat down on the floor, exhausted, "but first, I need a rest, poyo,"

Fumu picked Kirby up, "Come on, Bun, let's take Kirby to our living room and help him recover, Gooey and Rick, head on out and spread the news to everyone that Kirby's been found."

Gooey saluted with his tongue, "Aye aye, ma'am! We'll head back to you once we're done."

(Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Lurelin Village (Day) )

Three hours later, Kirby was sitting on the sofa in the living room of the castle apartment that Fumu and her family live in, Kirby was wrapped in a blanket and was holding a cup of hot cocoa in his hands. Fumu and Bun were both sitting next to him while Parm and Memu were sitting on the sofa parallel to the one Kirby was sitting on.

Kirby breathed a sigh of relief, "Thanks, everyone, poyo, I feel a lot better."

"It's no trouble Kirby," Fumu said, "You've obviously been through a lot since you were gone, but speaking of which, you ready to explain where you've been all this time yet?"

"Indeed, you've pulled quite the disappearing act on us," Memu said, "You've been gone for two weeks."

"Just two weeks, poyo?" Kirby asked, which surprised everyone, "weird, somehow it felt like I was trapped _here_ for much longer, poyo…."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Do come in!" Parm called out.

As the door opened, King Dedede, Escargon, Meta Knight, Blade Knight, and Sword Knight entered the room.

Meta Knight saw Kirby and breathed a sigh of relief, "So it's true you've returned, Kirby, thank goodness."

"Yeah, warn us the next time you decide to go M.I.A on us," Escargon said, "You've even made His Majesty panic."

"Yea-HEY! Watch it!" Dedede called out.

Gooey shortly entered the room

"Gooey, back already, poyo?" Kirby asked.

"Yeah, after Rick and I told Meta Knight and Dedede about your return," Gooey replied, "Big D here sent out his Waddle Dees to spread the news and Rick went to the forest to get the word out to everyone else here, he also suggested I head back to check on you, soooo, here I am."

"Thanks, Gooey, poyo," Kirby greeted, "I appreciate everyone's concern, but I think I'm fine now, and I think I'm ready to tell you all what happened."

"So what happened to you?" Meta Knight asked, "Why were you gone all this time?"

"Would you believe I was kidnapped by a giant floating hand from a different dimension, poyo?" Kirby asked, but only got awkward silence as everyone looked at him confusingly, "I guess not, I better start from the beginning, poyo….."


	2. Chapter 2

Smash 2

 _ **So I was gone for two weeks, poyo? Well, I guess that's when it all started, it must've happened while I was asleep at that time, because the first thing I remembered was waking up to a very strange place.**_

(Ocarina of Time – Shadow Temple)

Kirby was asleep on a strange, giant floating platform surrounded by a dark void, he shivered at how cold it felt suddenly and slowly woke up. He looked around at this unfamiliar world he was in with confusion and fear.

 _Wh-what's going on, poyo?_ Kirby thought to himself, _This isn't my house, and I don't think this is even Dreamland, poyo._

" **Welcome!"** an intimidatingly ominous voice called out.

Kirby looked around but didn't see anyone, "H-hello? Is someone here, poyo?"

" **Why do you tremble?"** the ominous voice asked **"As the most powerful hero of your dimension, I would expect your courage to match your power and skill."**

Suddenly, a giant floating white hand materialized in front of Kirby, this didn't ease Kirby's nerves one bit.

" **As the one who defeated the likes of Nightmare and Dark Matter,"** the giant hand said, **"I would think facing a giant talking hand would seem like child's play to you."**

"But… why would I want to fight you, poyo?" Kirby asked, "Who are you?"

" **Oh, did I should like I plan to fight you?"** the giant hand laughed, **"Many battles lie ahead of you, Kirby, and I'm afraid I'm not among your opponents. But to answer your question; what few that know of me have referred to be as the… Aspect of Creation, a being that has existed since the concept of creation itself was brought to the multiverse, but you? You may call me Master Hand."**

"Okay… Master Hand," Kirby greeted, but he couldn't shake off how uneasy he felt, to him, there several things about this situation that made him feel in over his head, so needless to say, he had a lot of questions.

Kirby asked the giant hand, "So where am I? did you bring me here?"

" **You are in the Smash Dimension, it is my home,"** Master Hand answered, **"And yes, It was I that brought you here. Why? We'll get to that later. In the meantime, Kirby, let me ask you something; I know about your powers, your 'copy abilities', but have you ever wondered why you could only copy specific elements?"**

Unfortunately, Kirby was still too confused about his situation to think much about Master Hand's question. Master Hand noticed but decided to just continue.

" **It's simple, really,"** Master Hand explained, **"These 'copy abilities' are actually latent powers that are already within you, these powers cannot be permanently unlocked through anything in your universe, but I have a small loophole, and I shall show it to you!"**

Kirby suddenly had this strange, almost mystical feeling, he found himself glowing a strange orange aura, Kirby felt as though he suddenly become much stronger than ever. The glowing stopped seconds later.

"What was that, poyo?" Kirby asked.

" **I have used my power to partially unlock some of your copy abilities by small portions,"** Master Hand answered, **"You can now use some of the attacks that are normally exclusive to your Cutter, Stone, and Fighter abilities at any time in combat. Let's test them out, shall we?"**

A sudden flash of light suddenly occurred and Kirby found himself in a strange place consisting of various platforms, walls, and red and white targets all suspended in mid-air.

" **Your objective here is simple;"** Master Hand said from somewhere, but Kirby couldn't see him anywhere, **"Break The Targets!"**

( Super Smash Bros – Bonus Game)

With no other options, Kirby decided for now to simply do as he's told. He looked at one target that was close by and punched it. He then proceeded to fly upward and landed several punches and kicks on some of the targets that were floating above him. Kirby was surprised that, while he wasn't shooting any ki attacks, he was doing unarmed combat with skill on par with his Fighter ability.

Kirby then fly up to what looked like a stone vertical tube with part of the bottom at a diagonal angle. Kirby saw two targets in the tube and one just outside the bottom.

Kirby remembered that Master Hand told him he can now access his Stone ability and figured he'd try that attack. Kirby jumped into the tube and found himself turning into an orange stone rock, he fell fast and managed to break all three targets before he changed back and flew safely to another stone platform.

It was on that particular platform that Kirby now had only two targets left to break. The first was right next to Kirby, who quickly just off-handedly punched it right after landing on the platform. Kirby looked above to find the second and final target high above him, Kirby thought it might be just a little too high for him to fly up without the Warp Star.

Kirby then remembered Master Hand said he has access to his Cutter ability now and wondered if that might help him reach the target.

Kirby first flew up as high as he could to the target, but exhausted his flight just when Kirby was only a few feet away from the target. Kirby mentally called out to his Cutter ability, which caused Kirby to conjure a Cutter blade onto his hand, which allowed him to unleash an upward slash that spontaneously allowed him to float upward and slash the final target before he slashed down back to ground level.

" **Complete!"** Master Hand exclaimed, **"Excellent, Kirby, you have done well."**

"Uh, thanks, poyo," Kirby said reluctantly.

" **Now that you've learned to use your new abilities,"** Master Hand said, **"You're ready for why I brought you here. So let's not waste any time."**

In another flash of light, Kirby suddenly found himself on a strange floating island that looked eerily similar to Dreamland, it even had what looked like Whispy Woods standing in one spot.

Before Kirby could get his hopes up, Master Hand intervened and said, **"This isn't the Whispy Woods you know from your world, this is merely a decorative construct I placed on this stage."**

"Stage? You mean this is a play, poyo?" Kirby asked.

" **If you prefer, I suppose that would be one way to describe it,"** Master Hand oddly agreed, sounding like he was amused by Kirby's innocent question, **"But there's no script to worry about and there's only one role you have to partake in."**

"And what's that, poyo?" Kirby asked.

Master Hand chuckled sinisterly and started to float away, **"Fight."**

Master Hand floated away until he was out of sight.

Suddenly, Kirby heard a different booming voice call out, and said this;

" **KIRBY VERSUS MARIO!"**

Kirby looked and saw something slowly rising from the ground a big…green…pipe?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kirby looked at the green pipe that was roughly two meters in front of him, and saw someone strange.

A man emerged from the pipe, he looked slightly portly, had a funny mustache, wore a red shirt, blue overalls, brown boots, white gloves, and most notably a red cap with the letter 'M' on the front of it.

The man saw Kirby and gave a welcoming smile.

"Hello! It's-a me, Mario!" the man introduced himself in a funny accent, "And you must-a be Kirby."

"Uh.. yes, poyo," Kirby said, "But do I know you?"

"Well, we-a never met-a personally," Mario said, "But I've heard-a lot about-a you. Word sometimes-a travels fast-a in the-a multiverse, and I-a have to say, I'm-a impressed with-a what you've accomplished."

"Wow, uh, thanks, poyo," Kirby said.

Mario looked around, as if observing the whole situation he and Kirby were in.

"Awfully-a strange predicament we're in, isn't it?" Mario commented, "But no-a worries, I've dealt with-a worst. I-a bet if we-a work together we can find a way outta here."

 _ **Hearing Mario say that somehow did wonders to helping me feel better, poyo. We only just met and somehow I could already tell I could trust him. But sadly, poyo, the moment was spoiled by an unwanted visitor.**_

" **Ah, if my brother was here, we'd both be clapping at this heartwarming pep-talk,"** Master Hand deadpanned.

Both Kirby and Mario turned and saw Master Hand suddenly appearing before them.

" **But we have a fight to start,"** Master Hand pointed out, **"So let's move this along and start fighting, shall we?"**

"If you-a plan to-a force us into-a fighting," Mario said as he cracked his knuckles, still facing Master Hand, "I'm sorry to-a say you got another thing coming! Now, I-a suggest you do us all a favor-a and let us go, along with-a everyone else you got-a trapped here, before I lose my-a good mood."

Master Hand laughed, **"Bold words, but empty, my plumber friend. I am the creator of this world, it is my power and my right to control everything in it as I see fit. I promise that you both will inevitably learn to accept your new life as my puppets, but I guess for now I'll have to tighten your strings."**

Kirby suddenly heard Mario groaning. The red-capped fighter fell down to his knees as a dark purple aura started engulfing him.

Mario turned his head to Kirby and called out in a desperate tone; "RUN!"

Kirby looked in horror at what Mario was going through, his horror turned to anger as he glared at Master Hand, "What did you do to him?-!"

" **Tightening the strings,"** Master Hand answered, **"As powerful as the plumber is, even he can't break free from my grip on his mind, no one who enters my dimension can, least of all you."**

Kirby flinched as he thought Master Hand was going to control him as he did Mario, but opened his eyes and saw Master Hand wasn't even doing any of the sort.

" **But I think just one of you under my control will be enough,"** Master Hand stated, **"I advise that you give him you're A-Game quickly, Kirby. For Mario is leagues above a more experienced fighter than you and has skill that would put many of your previous foes to shame."**

The purple aura around Mario dissipated and he stood back up. Mario turned to face Kirby and the pink child was shocked to see Mario showing a stone-cold stoic look on his face.

Mario immediately dashed at Kirby, who only barely managed to dodge the portly plumber when he threw a swift punch at Kirby.

Figuring that (at least for now) his only option was to fight back, Kirby tried to retaliate by striking at Mario with a good strong kick, but Mario easily dodged the attack and rolled behind Kirby with incredible acrobatic skill and agility.

Kirby tried to hammer at Mario with a series of short-range Vulcan jabs courtesy of the enhancements Master Hand gave him, but Mario dodged or blocked them all almost effortlessly, then countered by striking a swift and powerful punch square at Kirby's face, knocking Kirby away several feet and landing him near the edge of the stage.

 **I think it's safe to say that out of all the people I've fought over the years, poyo, Mario was one of, if not THE toughest opponent I've ever faced. He fought with skill and strength that could almost make Knuckle Joe look like a yellow-belt (but don't tell him I said that), and that's just me talking about his basic attacks! Little did I know that Mario had quite a few surprises of his own.**

Kirby saw Mario's gloved hands suddenly became engulfed in fire, Mario started conjuring fireballs out of his hands and started throwing them at Kirby.

Kirby saw this as a target of opportunity, he tried, and succeeded in inhaling the fireballs Mario threw at him.

Kirby quickly swallowed the fireball, but the moment he transformed, he found that his copy ability wasn't what he was expecting.

Kirby found himself actually wearing a red cap similar to Mario's.

 _What the heck, Poyo?_ Kirby thought to himself _Why didn't I get the Fire Ability?_ Kirby asked himself, _Did Master Hand sabotage my powers?-! or maybe…_

Mario dashed toward Kirby with the speed of an Olympic sprinter. Kirby tried, and to his own surprise succeeded, in throwing fireballs at Mario, which were the same fireballs Mario threw at him earlier.

Mario appeared surprised by the attack and just barely, yet nimbly dodged all the fireballs.

 _I get it now, poyo,_ Kirby thought to himself, _looks like instead of a regular copy ability I copied Mario's abilities, let's see how much of that I got, poyo._

Kirby ran toward Mario and tried to go on the offensive by landing another barrage of punches on Mario, seemingly focused on trying to hit his torso, Mario kept blocking Kirby's attacks without any problem but Kirby wasn't giving him any time to counter.

 _I was afraid of this, poyo,_ Kirby thought to himself _Copying Mario hasn't increased my fighting skills at all, looks like the fireballs are all I got from this, poyo. Oh well, I'll just have to use plan 'B', poyo._

Kirby finally managed to catch Mario off-guard by suddenly landing an upward kick right at Mario's chin, which caused Mario to be knocked afew feet into the air.

Kirby wasted no time continuing his assault and quickly tried to unleash an upward slash at Mario with his Final Cutter.

But the moment Kirby almost got close enough to slash the portly plumber, Mario made a quick air recovery and grabbed the arm Kirby was using to his cutter blade. Kirby gave a look that practically screamed "uh-oh."

Mario slammed Kirby to the ground with devastating force, causing Kirby to lose his 'Mario' ability, and once Mario got back down to ground level, he immediately bombarded Kirby with what felt like dozen punches and kicks before the poor pink child could have time to recover. Mario then started spinning with his fists outstretched and started whacking at Kirby like some human tornado.

Once Mario stopped his spinning attack, he looked at his opponent to find Kirby seriously bruised and beaten from the punishment he took.

Kirby found himself in tremendous pain and fatigue courtesy of the mind-controlled plumber, he could barely bring himself to move under these conditions, least of all fight. Kirby feared that it would be a matter of time before Mario strikes the finishing blow.

Mario's expression remained empty as he walked up to Kirby, who desperately tried to move to no avail.

Mario then grabbed Kirby, started spinning him around like an Olympic hammer throw, and tossed Kirby off the stage and into what looked like the bottomless abyss bellow it.

Kirby saw a portal open bellow him, which he fell into.

Next thing Kirby knew, he landed back on the same giant floating platform he found himself in when he first met Master Hand.

Speaking of Master Hand, take a wild guess who arrived to see the bruised and beaten puffball.

" **How disappointing,"** Master Hand said, **"I thought you'd put up a better fight than that, I even gave you an advantage by enhancing your powers so that you could copy the abilities of the other fighters here, yet you still lost. No matter, I'll just have to have you fight someone else later, let's hope you'll do better next time."**

As Master Hand floated off, Kirby passed out from pain and exhaustion.

 _Back in present time._

Kirby's friends each reacted differently when he explained his defeat at the hands of the mind-controlled Mario, Fumu and Gooey were horrified, Parm, Memu, and Meta-Knight were concerned, King Dedede, and Escargon, and Bun were shocked and surprised.

"So this plumber fought and defeated you almost effortlessly?" Meta-Knight asked, unsure of what to make of what he heard.

"Gotta admit, I never thought anyone could beat you," Bun said.

"I'm flattered, poyo, but Mario's in a league of his own," Kirby stated, "especially since using my copying powers didn't do me any good against him, poyo. Anyway, here's where things started to get…. Interesting."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 _ **I don't know how long I was out, poyo, but it felt like I was asleep for days at least. And after that fight with Mario, I was almost afraid I was gonna be stuck here forever. But luckily for me, poyo, I didn't have to wait long for my luck to turn around**_

Kirby eventually woke up still on the floating platform he passed out in, he looked at himself to find that. Bizarrely, his injuries from his fight with Mario were gone.

 _Okay, Poyo,_ Kirby thought to himself, _recap: I'm stuck in an unknown dimension, held captive by a giant talking hand, said hand wants me to fight for his amusement forever, and I lost my first fight. Someone please tell me I'm just dreaming all this._

Just seconds later, a flash of light occurs, essentially giving Kirby his answer.

As the light dissipated, Kirby found himself in the same Dreamland-themed stage he fought Mario in earlier.

A disembodied voice called out; "KIRBY VS NESS!"

 _I guess all I can do is play along, at least until I can figure a way out,_ Kirby thought to himself.

Kirby saw what looked like a portal appear on the opposite side of the stage, a short figure popped out of the portal, covered in black soot, the figure quickly shook off the soot to reveal he was a young human boy that looked only slightly older than Fumu. He sported a red ball cap with a blue peak, a blue and yellow striped t-shirt, brown backpack, denim shorts, and red shoes.

 _This must be Ness, poyo,_ Kirby thought to himself, _He doesn't look too tough, but if Mario's anything to go by, I shouldn't take anyone here lightly."_

"3…2…...1…..GO!"

Ness charged at Kirby, he made the first move by giving a swift kick which Kirby, much to his own surprise, was able to easily dodge.

Ness pulled a baseball bat out of his backpack and started swinging it at Kirby a few times, this time Kirby was only barely able to dodge the first three swings before catching the bat at the fourth strike.

Kirby suddenly heard a voice in his mind; _Listen carefully, I'm Ness, and I'm using telepathy to talk to you. I know you're not being controlled by Master Hand, and I'll have you know I'm only faking being under his control. I have an idea of how we can both escape, but I need you to play along. We'll pretend to keep fighting until one of us reaches the edge of the stage, then we'll grab each other and fall off the edge together. Got me? Just nod quickly if you do._

 _ **I'll admit, poyo, at first I wasn't too sure about Ness' plan, it seemed a little bit far-fetched to me, but I knew Ness not being under Master Hand's control was a good sign. And honestly, poyo. I couldn't really think of any better ideas, so…**_

Kirby nodded lightly.

 _Good,_ Ness said telepathically. He pulled his baseball bat out of Kirby's grip and stood in a fighting stance, waiting for Kirby to make the next move.

Kirby jumped forward and tried to kick Ness with both feet, but Ness quickly sidestepped the attack and held out both his hands.

Ness shouted, "PK Fire!"

A small lightning bolt shaped projectile came out of Ness' hands, Kirby was too close to have any time to dodge and found himself engulfed in flames. Seconds later, the fire dissipated and Kirby looked at himself to find the attack didn't injure him much, even Ness was surprised to see this.

Kirby charged at Ness, who pulled out a yo-yo and swung it at a low angle, but Kirby easily jumped over the attack and kicked Ness in the chest, knocking him back a few feet.

Kirby noticed Ness was close to the edge of the stage and decided to keep laying the offensive. Kirby ran toward Ness again and threw a volley of punches. Ness was only able to dodge or block some of Kirby attacks as he found himself being pushed closer to the edge.

Kirby knew Ness was partially holding back, but judging from how Ness was barely holding his own against him in hand-to-hand combat, Kirby could tell that Ness was actually a somewhat less experienced fighter than him.

Eventually Kirby and Ness got to the edge of the stage. Ness was caught by surprise when Kirby swiftly got behind him, grabbed him by his waist with both arms, and suplexed both himself and Ness off of the stage.

"Great job!" Ness praised vocally, "Now for step two, hang on tight!"

Ness placed two fingers on his head and shouted "PK TELEPORTATION!"

Kirby found himself suddenly being pulled forward with insane speed, next thing he knew, he found himself in a completely different location.

It looked like another stage, except that it was largely a stone grey floor with stone grey floating platforms. Kirby looked around to see this stage had some strange shapeless purple void surrounding it.

"Wow, poyo, that was amazing! How'd you do it?" Kirby asked as he turned to Ness…. To find him covered in soot again.

Ness shook off the soot he was covered in before answered, "I got psychic powers, or PSI, how I got them is kinda a long story though. But enough about me, you okay?"

"Yeah, poyo, I'm fine," Kirby replied.

Ness started chuckling.

"What's so funny, poyo?" Kirby asked.

"Hehe, sorry," Ness said, "Guess my teleportation made you look like a marshmallow had a close encounter with campfire."

Kirby looked down at himself and found he was covered in soot, he tried to shake it off like Ness did and got most (but not all) of it off.

Ness planted both his index fingers on his forehead, "Hmm… I'm not sensing Master Hand anywhere, so I think we'll be safe for now, but I doubt we can say the same for these other fighters out there."

"Any idea how we can free them, poyo?" Kirby asked.

Ness thought for a moment, "Well, I think if I can get close enough to a fighter, I might be able to use my PSI powers to break Master Hand's grip on their minds, but a good chunk of them are out of my league, unless…"

"Maybe I can help out, poyo?" Kirby offered.

Ness grinned, "I was just about to ask you about that, I bet if we work together we'll be able to free the other fighters, and hopefully we can get them to side with us in fighting Master Hand later."

"Great idea, poyo," Kirby said, "but how do we get to them?"

"I'm pretty sure I can teleport us to another stage," Ness replied, "But I should warn you, what you saw earlier was my first attempt to teleport somewhere random, if I do this again, we could end up anywhere, we could end up fighting anyone."

"Well, meeting you has already turned my luck around, poyo," Kirby said, "We can hope it holds up."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 _Back to the present…_.

"So did your luck get better like you thought?" Fumu asked.

"Well, yes and no, poyo," Kirby replied, "I'll get to that in a bit, but let's just say what, no, _who_ Ness and I found was well worth our time, and our bruises, poyo…."

Back to Kirby's story….

Kirby and Ness teleported and found themselves on what looked like a rooftop of a grey and green castle.

Kirby looked around the castle, "Wow, this place looks a little bit like King Dedede's castle, only less brightly colored, poyo."

"You have a king where you're from?" Ness asked curiously.

"Yeah, well…. kind of, don't you, poyo?" Kirby asked.

"Well, Eagleland 'kind of' has a president last time I checked," Ness replied, "But I've rarely been up-to-date on current events, at least not without a meteor waking me up in the middle of the night. But anyway, there doesn't seem to be anyone here, we better look somewhere else."

Ness was about to use his teleportation again when a familiar booming voice startled him and caused him to break his concentration;

"KIRBY and NESS vs LINK!"

"Uh oh!" Ness exclaimed, "Sounds like Master Hand knows we're here!"

"Uh.. Ness," Kirby said, "I don't think we should be worrying about that right now, poyo, look!"

Ness and Kirby saw a magical transparent green pillar appear on the stage. Within that pillar, they saw a humanoid figure slowly descend onto the stage.

The figure appears to be well over five feet, had blond hair under what appeared to be a green stocking cap, the figure also wore a green tunic with white sleeves, white stockings(?), a brown leather belt, brown leather gauntlets and boots, blue eyes, and pointy ears. The pointy-eared figure also carried a sword and shield in hand and was already in a battle stance the moment his boots touched the ground.

"This must be that Link guy the disembodied voice mentioned," Ness said, "I fought a lot of weirdos back where I'm from, but this guy looks like he just walked out of a renaissance fair."

Link charged at Ness and Kirby. Ness tried to swing his bat at Link, but Link skillfully parried Ness' attack and with a twist of his wrist, Link disarmed Ness of his bat. Ness tried to quickly unleash a PK Fire on Link, but Link quickly slashed at Ness across the chest, causing Ness to stagger and his PSI attack to be disrupted.

Link then tried to stab at Ness, but Ness rolled away from the attack and picked up his bat.

Kirby, who thought Link was too focused on Ness to notice him, jumped toward Link and tried to kick him in the back, but Link quickly turned and blocked Kirby's attack when his shield.

Both Ness and Kirby charged at Link again, hoping to strike at him from multiple angles. But Link quickly spun around with his sword sticking out, which unleashed a powerful wave of energy that knocked them both back effortlessly.

"Amazing, poyo," Kirby said, impressed with Link's skill, "He seems as strong as Meta Knight, maybe even stronger! so how are we gonna free him?"

"I can try to use my telepathy to sever Master Hand's connection to him," Ness replied, "But I'll need a bit of time to concentrate."

"I'll see if I can't keep him busy while you do your thing, poyo!" Kirby said.

"Alright, but be careful," Ness warned, "He's obviously too good for the two of us to beat. If he takes one of us out, this fight's already lost."

Ness closed his eyes and placed his right index finger and middle finger on his forehead, building up concentration

Kirby charged toward Link and stared at him as he approached, hoping to find any sign indicating what Link's next move was.

Kirby caught a vague twitch in Link's left arm, figured Link was about to strike with his sword, and quickly took stone form.

Link struck a mighty blow at Kirby, but Kirby in his stone form only barely felt the sword and was unharmed by the attack. The impact of striking at stone caused Link's sword to briefly vibrate in his hand.

Kirby returned to his normal form and quickly kicked Link in the abdomen, which knocked Link a few feet away.

Before Kirby could strike again, he hesitated when he noticed he was smelling smoke close by.

Kirby turned to his left…..

….

He saw a bomb, and the fuse was a millisecond away from finishing its course.

Kirby had no time to react the moment it exploded in his face.

Kirby found himself stunned, disoriented, and his vision was blurred by the bomb's explosion and laying on the floor face-up.

Struggling to shrug off his dizziness, Kirby could barely make out a shape of Link holding his sword downward with both hands, he looked like he was ready to strike the finishing blow.

But before Link could stab Kirby, he suddenly dropped his sword and placed his hands on his head, letting out a blood curling scream of agony.

Kirby rolled away from Link and started squinting for a few seconds while waiting for his vision to return.

Once Kirby was able to see again, he looked at Link to see he was still looking like he's suffering the worse headache ever.

Kirby turned around to see Ness was still focusing his telepathy, Kirby figured Ness' powers were finally having an effect on Link.

"Gaah!" Ness exclaimed as he opened his eyes and stopped his telepathy, Now Ness had his hands on his head like he was suffering a headache.

"Ness! Poyo! Kirby exclaimed as he dashed to his new friend's aid, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Ness replied as he regained his composure, "What about Link?"

Ness and Kirby looked at Link, who picked his sword back up before charging straight at the duo.

Link strangely started twirling his sword around before he tried to slash at Ness, who quickly dodged the attack.

Kirby saw Link wasn't paying attention to him and tried again to attack from behind, this time Kirby was able to punch the back of Link's left knee, causing the green-capped warrior to briefly fall to his knees and briefly cry out in pain.

"He's still attacking us!" Ness exclaimed, "My telepathy must've failed to free him."

"Any idea why, poyo?" Kirby asked.

"I felt Master Hand's presence right before I lost my telepathic connection to Link," Ness replied, "I think Master Hand was on to me and disrupted my attempt to break Link's grip on him."

"Can you try again, poyo?" Kirby asked.

"Maybe, but not where Master Hand can disrupt my powers," Ness replied.

Kirby thought for a moment, then suggested, with a thought, _What if we brought Link to that empty stage we were in earlier?_

Ness heard Kirby's thought and nodded before saying telepathically, _Not a bad idea, I'm sure I can teleport Link here, but I'd need him to keep still long enough for me to hold onto him and focus my powers. Which would mean we'd have to subdue him first, easier said than done._

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, poyo," Kirby said vocally, "Look."

Link went back on his feet and charging at Ness and Kirby again, this time holding his sword in a way that made it obvious he was going to stab one of them. Sure enough, Link attempted to stab Kirby but Kirby easily dodged the attack.

"See that, poyo?" Kirby asked, "You powers must've done something, he's making his moves more predictable."

"Of course!" Ness exclaimed, "My telepathy must've weakened Master Hand's control over Link, he must know we're trying to free him and is resisting control just enough to make the fight easier. We might win this after all!"

Kirby swiftly moved behind Link and unleashed a powerful upward kick that sent Link up several feet.

"PK Thunder!" Ness called out and unleashed a short stream of lightning that electrocuted Link upon contact.

While still in midair, Link briefly sheathed his sword and pulled a boomerang literally out of nowhere and, after what seemed like a deliberate two-second pause, threw the boomerang at Kirby, who effortlessly dodged it.

Kirby retaliated by unleashing his Final Cutter attack… which Link simply took in full force.

Once Link was back on the ground, Ness and Kirby wasted no time and took turns rapidly striking at Link without giving him any opportunity to counter-attack, seconds later, Kirby out of nowhere moved to his right… as Link's boomerang returned and knocked its owner on the head before Link could catch it.

Which officially knocked Link out cold.

"Alright! we did it!" Ness cheered as he and Kirby high-fived each other in celebration, "We better get back to base before Master Hand makes a mess of our breakout.

Ness grabbed the right wrist of the unconscious Link as well as Kirby's left arm before shouting; "PK TELEPORTATION!"

And the three fighters were teleported out of the castle stage.

 _Back to the present_

"Before I go any further, poyo," Kirby said, "I need to ask Fumu something."

"What is it?" Fumu asked curiously.

"I know it sounds weird, poyo, but did you try to summon the Warp Star while I was gone?" Kirby asked Fumu.

"Uh, yeah actually," Fumu confirmed, "Days after you went missing, I got desperate and called the Warp Star. I was worried you might've been in trouble and I hoped it would help bring you back home, or at least help you get out of whatever bind you might've been in. Why did you ask?"

"I'll get to that in a minute, poyo," Kirby stated, "But right now, I think I should get to the part after Ness and I rescued Link. Now here's how it went…"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Kirby and Ness returned to the empty stage they were in earlier, with the unconscious Link in tow.

Kirby breathed a sigh of relief, "Well, poyo, that actually went better than I thought."

"Let's not relax just yet, Kirby," Ness reminded, "I still need to free Link from Master Hand's control. Otherwise, we'll have to fight him again."

Ness went down on his knees, placed his hands on Link's head. Ness closed his eyes and concentrated.

Just seconds later, Link woke, saw Ness, and instinctively raised his sword.

Ness stood up and held up his whoa in panic, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Relax! We're on your side!"

"Oh, sorry," Link apologized as he sheathed his sword and stood up, "Reflex, I hope I didn't hurt either of you too badly during that fight."

Ness chuckled sheepishly, "Well, you kinda kicked our butts a couple times over during the first half."

"Wait, poyo," Kirby intervened, "you remembered the fight while you were mind-controlled?"

"Yep," Link confirmed, "as well as the all the previous fights Master Hand had me do. That disembodied hand has an eye- er… finger for talent if nothing else. Many of those fighters were pretty tough, some even managed to beat me, and that's no easy feat."

"We can verify that, poyo," Kirby nodded.

"But we better get down to brass tacks," Link stated, "you two freed me so I could help you free the other fighters, right?"

"Yeah," Ness confirmed, "we figured we especially needed someone like you on our side if we're to stand any chance, Master Hand calls me and Kirby here the most powerful fighters in our home dimensions, but in the grand scheme of things, we're just kids with superpowers. The way you fight shows you've got way more experience as a warrior than the two of us combined."

"And to be fair, I've seen some of the fighters show skill comparable to my own," Link stated, "though while I appreciate that you two freed me, I imagine Master Hand must not be too happy about that. I think it'll be only a matter of time before he retaliates."

"All the more reason we should free as many fighters as we can, poyo," Kirby pointed out.

"Good idea," Link agreed, "I suggest we split up. I know it's risky, but if we each hit different stages at once, we'll force Master Hand to split his focus and hopefully make him rush at stopping us without thinking clearly. We'll free more fighters that way too, which would save time."

"Sounds goods," Ness agreed, "But what if one of us ends up fighting someone who's too strong? Remember, it took the two of us to beat you, and even then you had to resist your mind-control to give us a chance."

"Then just retreat back here until one of us returns," Link replied.

"Wait, poyo!" Kirby exclaimed, "I needed Ness' teleporting powers to get to where we found you, how can we split up if Ness is the only one who can get around?"

Link chuckled slightly, "My friend, I'm afraid you've underestimated me."

Link turned around and held out his left hand, a strange triangle-shaped symbol glowed on the back of Link's hand and a strange circle of green magical energy suddenly appeared.

"I've always had a way of getting around," Link stated, he turned, looked, and pointed behind Ness and Kirby, "What's that?"

Kirby and Ness turned around and saw something… star-shaped heading their way.

"Wait… I know what that is, poyo!" Kirby cheered, "The Warp Star!"

Indeed it was, the Warp Star reached the stage Kirby and his friends were on and landed right in front of Kirby.

"Fumu must've noticed I was gone, summoned it, and it came here, poyo!" Kirby cheered, "Now I won't need Ness to teleport me everywhere!"

"And we may also have a way out of this dimension as well!" Link pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Ness asked.

"Think about it," Link explained, "If this device came from Kirby's home dimension, it obviously had to bypass dimensional borders to get here."

"He's right, poyo," Kirby agree, "And once we free everyone, I can get us all out of here and bring us home."

"You sure this ride of yours can get everyone out?" Ness asked, "It looks only big enough for you to ride on."

"Don't worry, poyo," Kirby reassured, "I can change its size at will, my friend Fumu may be able to summon it, but only I can control it."

"So now we have both a way to free the other fighters and a way out once we're done," Link summarized, "I like these odds, though part of me feels I should make you both stay here, but freeing those fighters is something I can't do on my own without exhausting myself, so we'll stick to the initial plan for now. Be careful, and bring any fighters you subdue here."

Kirby, Ness, and Link each went their separate paths.

 _Back to the present….._

"So THAT'S why you asked about the Warp Star earlier!" Fumu exclaimed.

"Yep, poyo," Kirby confirmed, "I know I technically could've come home at any time, poyo, but I didn't want to leave my new friends hanging, especially since at the time we thought the Warp Star was gonna be our only ticket out, but I'll get to that later. Right now I should tell you the time I got egg on my face… literally, poyo!"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Kirby arrived to find an oddly colorful stage, which looked oddly like a giant pop-up book without words, the ground consisted of a blue cardboard 'road' with green cardboard 'grass', with a strange tree that had a heart with a face attached to it. There were also three platforms that looked like floating brown strips of cardboard and two cloud-like platforms that each flanked the east and west side of the stage.

"Wow, poyo," Kirby commented, baffled at what he was seeing, "To think Marx once called parts of Dreamland surreal, now I wonder how he'd react if he saw this place…."

" **KIRBY VS YOSHI TEAM!** " A disembodied voice announced.

"Aaaaand right on cue, poyo," Kirby commented nonchalantly, "Wait a minute….. 'Yoshi team'?

Kirby looked up and three strange lizard-like creatures falling from the sky, oddly cute-looking lizards with big noses that wore saddles and shoes and each had varying skin colors with a vertical white stripe that went from their lower mouths down to the end of their tails.

"Those must be the 'Yoshis' of this 'Yoshi team', poyo," Kirby ruminated, "I bet they must be tough if Master Hand captured an entire species to fight for his fun, poyo. But how can I subdue them all?"

One of the Yoshis landing in front of Kirby and opened its mouth to extend its chameleon-like tongue at Kirby, but Kirby easily jumped up away from the attack.

"Great, another big lizard with an extendable tongue, poyo," Kirby groaned slightly, "It's like Chameleo Arm all over again, poyo."

From behind, another Yoshi pulled out a white egg with green spots out of nowhere and threw the egg at Kirby. The egg exploded on Kirby, but didn't do much damage.

"Are they even trying, poyo?" Kirby wondered.

Kirby dashed over to one of the Yoshis and kicked it, which caused it to dissolve into a puff of smoke.

"Okay, seriously, what's going on, poyo?" Kirby asked himself with a mix of confusion and frustration in his voice, "They go down like I'm punching cardboard, poyo, I'm not even sure those are actual imprisoned fighters, poyo."

Deciding to just roll with his situation, Kirby simply kept wailing at the Yoshis that kept attacking him. Every single Yoshi Kirby nailed on went down and dissolved into a puff of smoke after just one hit.

Kirby simply rinsed and repeated until he curb-stomped the 15th Yoshi and found himself alone on the stage again.

"Okay, this whole thing just went from being too hard to too easy, poyo," Kirby noted, "And somehow I don't think those 'Yoshis' were brain-washed fighters."

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared and yet another Yoshi appeared, a green one at that! Kirby was about to ready himself for another fight, but stopped himself from attacking when he noticed that this Yoshi was sleeping.

"Now Master Hand's throwing at me the one Yoshi that doesn't attack me, poyo?" Kirby asked, "This doesn't make any sense, poyo."

The green Yoshi woke up, yawned, and looked around until it saw Kirby.

"Yoshi!" The green Yoshi called out in a cheerful tone as it waved at Kirby.

 _ **I found it weird that this Yoshi didn't seem to be mind-controlled when his duplicates seemed bent on trying to kill me, poyo. But I figured Master Hand didn't actually bother to control him like how he didn't bother to control me, so I decided to try to be friendly.**_

"Uh, Hi, poyo," Kirby greeted, "You were imprisoned too, right? That's why I'm here; to rescue you."

"Yoshi! yoshi!" the Yoshi cheered and nodded.

"I can't understand what you said, poyo," Kirby noted, "But obviously you understand me at least, that's good, poyo. So, you up for riding with me? I'm supposed to bring you to my friends and fellow escapees, poyo."

"Yoshi!" Yoshi cheered.

Kirby beckoned the Warp Star over and it floated over to him. Both Kirby and Yoshi both jumped aboard the Warp Star and flew out of the stage.

On the way back to base however, Kirby saw a strange silhouette with an orange background from a far distance.

 _That silhouette looks familiar…,_ Kirby thought, _Master Hand couldn't have… wait, he captured me, so he could've captured…_

Kirby finished his thought with a gasp, he turned to his Yoshi companion and said, "Excuse mister.. Yoshi? Can I call you Yoshi, poyo?"

"Yoshi!" Yoshi nodded.

"Good, poyo, anyway," Kirby began, "Hope you don't mind, but I think we need to take a detour, poyo. I think a friend of mine from back home, named Meta Knight, might've been captured as well, and I just can't leave him hanging."

"Yoshi!" Yoshi nodded, and started punching at the air as a sign to offer his assistance.

"You want to help me, poyo?" Kirby asked, "That's great, 'cause with my powers the way they are now, I might need all the help I can get if I have to fight Meta Knight, poyo."

With that, Kirby and Yoshi flew over to the ship-shaped silhouette.


	8. Chapter 8

**Back to the present….**

"So you thought I was captured by Master Hand along with you?" Meta Knight asked, "While I appreciate your concern, you can see I've never even heard of Master Hand nor this Smash Dimension before you told us about it."

"I know, poyo," Kirby said, "But the ship looked a lot like the Halberd from a distance, so it made sense to me at the time, Yoshi and I only found out how wrong I was when we got a closer look."

"So what did you and Yoshi actually find?" Bun asked.

"I'm just about to get to that, poyo," Kirby replied, "Anyway…"

 **Back to Kirby's story**

Kirby and Yoshi arrived to find that the ship they saw actually wasn't the Halberd. But rather looked like a large light-grey space battleship with a large black rear thruster, two openings that looked like they were meant for smaller ships to go in and out of the ship, a pair of powerful-looking laser cannons on the front of the ship, and five stabilizing wings placed on the rear of the ship. Kirby also noticed a red symbol of what looked like a winged fox silhouette as well as two green words painted below the symbol.

"'Starfox,' Poyo?" Kirby read aloud, "Huh, sounds like some sort of organization, poyo. Well, it's obviously not the Halberd, but that doesn't mean there isn't a captured fighter here, we better land so we can rescue them, poyo."

Kirby and Yoshi jumped off the Warp Star and landed on the giant ship.

"And 3…..2….1….." Kirby muttered.

"KIRBY AND YOSHI VS FOX!"

A small white and blue fighter-like spaceship suddenly appeared and flew past the giant ship, but not before a strange figure jumped out of the fighter and landed on the giant ship.

The figure had a fox-like head, fur, and tail, but otherwise looked mostly humanoid in shape. He wore dark green shirt and pants under a light grey short-sleeved jacket, grey gloves, a red scarf, and weird grey boots that looked almost cybernetic in design.

"This has to be Fox, poyo," Kirby commented, "You sure you can help me fight him, Yoshi? 'Cause somehow I don't think we're in for an easy fight, poyo."

Yoshi gave a determined look and nodded, "Yoshi!"

Fox attacked first by pulling out a one-handed laser blaster and firing multiple shots at Kirby and Yoshi, who both dodged the blasts and started charging at Fox at different directions.

Kirby dashed at Fox and tried to hit him with an upside down spin kick only for Fox to roll away from the attack. But while Fox was distracted by Kirby, Yoshi stuck his tongue out and caught Fox with the tip of his tongue. Yoshi then used his tongue to pull Fox into his mouth and swallowed him.

"Yoshi!" Kirby called out "what are you-"

Yoshi then proceed to lay an egg and started punching, kicking, and head-butting it multiple times before Fox bursted out of the eggshell.

"Oh, I see, poyo," Kirby said, "wait, you lay eggs?"

 **Back to the present**

"Wait, Yoshi can lay eggs?" Bun asked, "But you kept calling him a 'he'."

"I know, poyo," Kirby said with a shrug, "I found out later he views himself as a guy even with this info in mind. And before you ask, poyo, I have no idea how that works, but I felt it was best if I just went along it with."

Meta Knight nodded, "You've witnessed far stranger things."

Kirby nodded in agreement, "But anyway, poyo, back to my story."

 **Back to Kirby's story**

Yoshi then did a jump, followed by a strange fluttering movement he did with his feet that allowed him to float a little bit higher, then tried to land a ground pound attack on Fox. But Fox rolled out of the way just seconds before Yoshi hit the ground. While Fox was busy with Yoshi, however, Kirby took the opportunity to jump kick at Fox in the back, knocking him several feet away. But Fox made a quick air recovery and fired his blaster again at Kirby. Kirby inhaled the blaster shots and quickly spat them back out at Fox, who quickly pulled out a strange high-tech device that projected a light blue hexagonal barrier that deflected the blaster shots back at Kirby, who got hit and briefly recoiled from the attack before he could inhale the blaster shots again.

Fox then dashed at Kirby with lightning speed and wailed at him with a lengthy combo of swift punches and kicks. Kirby held his arms up to try to guard against Fox's attacks, but Kirby could feel his defenses wearing down very quickly. By the time Fox was finished with his combo attack, he utterly broke through Kirby's guard with a well-executed roundhouse kick, rendering Kirby dazed and stunned.

Fox then engulfed himself in a strange flaming aura that made it look like he was building up energy. Fox then 'launched' himself toward Kirby like some sentient fireball.

But Kirby suddenly found himself pulled out of the way of Fox's attack, causing Fox to miss.

Kirby found himself in front of Yoshi, whom Kirby realized used his tongue to save Kirby from getting roasted.

"Thanks, poyo," Kirby said to Yoshi, "Actually, I think you just gave me an idea."

Kirby runs toward Fox again, who tried to hit Kirby with another roundhouse kick, but Kirby ducked under the attack and used his Final Cutter attack halfway to send Fox flying into the air.

"Yoshi! Tongue, now!" Kirby called out. And sure enough, Yoshi extended his tongue and caught Fox with it.

Kirby then jumped up and called out to Yoshi, "Perfect! Now slam him to the ground, Poyo!"

Yoshi swung his tongue downward, slamming Fox down and leaving him dazed. Kirby then took stone form and dropped right down on Fox's head, knocking him unconscious.

After turning himself back to normal, Kirby breathed a sigh of relief, "Finally, poyo. That was much tougher than I would've liked, poyo. Yoshi, can you carry him?"

"Yoshi!" Yoshi cheered as he picked the unconscious Fox up and placed him on the saddle on his back.

"Perfect, let's go, poyo," Kirby said, "I bet Link and Ness are waiting for us by now."

Kirby beckoned the Warp Star over Kirby hopped on along with Yoshi, who was still carrying his vulpine passenger. The Warp Star then took off, leaving the grey space cruiser behind.


End file.
